• Accomplishments
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• Research
• Spinal Cord Injury Projects
• Traumatic Brain Injury Projects
  • Assessment & Intervention for Mild TBI
  • Can Eye Movements Predict Persistent Problems in Paediatric Mild TBI?
  • Cognitive Neuroscience of Maladaptive Behaviours in Adolescents with Traumatic Brain Injury
  • DECRA Trial (DECompressive CRAniectomy Trial)
  • Enhancing Neurogenesis Post -TBI
  • Fluid Resuscitation in TBI
  • Headstart: Multi-family Groups for Traumatic Brain Injury
  • Hypothermia in Childhood TBI (HiTBIC)
  • Improving the functional communication ability of adults with TBI
  • In Vivo Hippocampal Studies in Rats
  • Long term consequences of childhood head injury - 15 year follow-up
  • Measuring the Impact of TBI on People's Lives
  • Mobility Following Childhood TBI
  • New Treatments for Brain and Spinal Cord Injuries
  • Neural Basis of Communication Disorder in Children
  • Neurotrauma Tissue/Fluid Bank
  • Normoglycaemia in Intensive Care Traumatic Brain Injury Study (NICE-TBI)
  • Preventing Neuronal Cell Death Following Brain Trauma
  • Prevention and Treatment of Social Problems Following TBI
  • Rehabilitation of Attention Following TBI
  • Role of Tissue Type Plasminogen Activator
  • TBI in Older Adults
  • Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) Treatment in Depression After Traumatic Brain Injury
  • Traumatic Hypoxia and Cerebral Inflammation
  • Virtual Reality and Upper Limb Function Following TBI in Children
• Targeted Initiatives
• Completed TBI and SCI Projects
• Program Grants

Long term consequences of childhood head injury - 15 year follow-up

Chief Investigator: Associate Professor Cathy Catroppa
Lead Organisation: Murdoch Childrens Research Institute
VNI Funding: $512,985
Start Date: TBC

Summary:

Over the past decade our research team has systematically followed the progress of a sample of children sustaining TBI. The project has an international reputation, and is unique in terms of length of follow-up, prospective design and representative well-maintained sample. Our findings challenge the traditionally held view that children are resilient and recover fully from early brain insult. Rather, we have found that, up to 10 years post-TBI, many children experience impairments in physical, cognitive, behavioural and social function which impact on quality of life. The implication is that these problems will lead to life-long disability, resulting in high levels of individual, family and community burden.

AIM 1: To improve our understanding of the long-term consequences of childhood TBI.
We will review this sample of children with TBI at 15 years post-injury, at a time of adolescence/young adulthood. This provides an unprecedented opportunity to document recovery and outcome as children move into late adolescence and early adulthood. This time-period coincides with the well-documented spurt in brain development in the adolescence period, therefore also allowing for investigation of the impact of this spurt in brain development on long-term outcome and recovery.

AIM 2: To examine factors that contribute to recovery and outcome of children with TBI.
Predicting individual outcome remains a significant challenge, with particular clinical relevance to treatment and follow-up. To date, several potential predictors have been identified by our team: (i) injury-related variables, (ii) pre-morbid child and family function, (iii) developmental levels, (iv) cognitive factors, and (v) psychosocial/environmental factors. However, while each of these domains has been studied in isolation, no study has investigated the range of potential contributors, or their potential interactions. The proposed study is in an excellent position to investigate these complex relationships, as it can draw on the rich and systematic data bank from the longitudinal study to investigate both acute (0–3 months post-injury) as well as more recent predictors (e.g. those from 30-month, 5- and 10-year data), with regard to outcome in adolescence/adulthood.